A method of telemicroscopy comprises the step of preparing a specimen on a microscopy slide. The slide is placed upon the stage of a microscope equipped with digital imaging apparatus and motorised stage and the specimen imaged to obtain a composite high resolution image of the whole specimen. A relatively low resolution copy of that image is obtained and stored in a datastore. The method further comprises the steps of allowing access to the datastore from a terminal transferring the low resolution image to the terminal and displaying the image upon a monitor selecting by means of the remote terminal, as desired, an area of the low resolution image and transferring corresponding high resolution image data for that area from the datastore to the terminal.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method of telemicroscopy comprising the steps of: preparing a complete specimen on a microscopy slide, the complete specimen occupying an area of the microscopy slide; placing the slide upon the stage of a microscope equipped with a high power objective lens, digital imaging apparatus and motorized stage; imaging said area of the microscopy slide using the high power objective lens to obtain a single scan of the complete specimen at high magnification and high resolution to provide data for a high resolution image of every portion, of the specimen; wherein the step of imaging comprises obtaining a continuos sequence of successive images by advancing the field of view of the high power objective lens of the microscope stepwise across the complete specimen and acquiring successive images of each field of view for the complete specimen; digitally processing the high resolution image data to obtain data for a relatively low resolution copy of the composite image of the complete specimen; and storing the high resolution image data and the low resolution copy of the image data in a datastore; wherein the method further comprises the steps of transferring the low resolution copy of the image data from the datastore to a remote terminal for displaying a corresponding low resolution image, as a navigation map, upon a monitor of the terminal; and in response to a selection, by a user of the terminal, of an area of the navigation map, transferring corresponding high resolution image data for the selected area of the image from the datastore to the terminal.
2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of recording the areas of the low resolution image that are selected, for review of performance of said user.
3. A telemicroscopy apparatus comprising a microscope provided with a high power objective lens, a digital imaging apparatus and a motorized stage, wherein the apparatus is controllable to obtain, a single scan of the complete specimen at a high magnification and high resolution to provide high resolution digital image data of every portion of the specimen occupying an area of a microscopy slide placed upon the stage comprising a continuous sequence of successive images by advancing the field of view of the high power objective lens stepwise across the complete specimen thereby acquiring successive images of the entire field of view for the complete specimen; image processing means to process the high resolution digital image data to obtain a low resolution copy of the image data; storage means to store the high resolution image data and the low resolution copy of the image data thereby obtained; and means for transferring the low resolution copy of the image data from the datastore to the remote terminal for displaying a corresponding low resolution image, as a navigation map, upon a monitor of the terminal; and in response to a selection, by a user of the terminal, of an area of the navigation map, means for transferring corresponding high resolution image data for the selected area of the image from the datastore to the terminal.
4. The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the digital imaging apparatus is a digital camera.
5. The apparatus according to claim 3 , comprising means for moving the objective lens of the microscope in order to provide automatic focusing.
6. The apparatus according to claim 3 , comprising means for recording what image data is requested for review of the performance of a user.
7. The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the recording means is a data storage disk, such as a floppy disk.
8. A method for acquiring image data for use in telemicroscopy, the method comprising the steps of: placing a microscopy slide containing a prepared complete specimen upon a stage of a microscope equipped with a high power objective lens, digital imaging apparatus and motorized stage; imaging an area of the complete specimen using the high power objective lens to obtain a single scan of the complete specimen at high magnification and high resolution to provide a high resolution image of every portion of the specimen; and digitally processing the high resolution digital image data to obtain a relatively low resolution copy of the image data, wherein the step of imaging comprises; obtaining a continuous sequence of successive images by advancing the field of view of the high power objective lens of the microscope stepwise across the complete specimen and acquiring successive images of each field of view for the complete specimen; transferring the low resolution copy of the image data from the datastore to a remote terminal for displaying a corresponding low resolution image, as a navigation map, upon a monitor of the terminal; and in response to a selection, by a user of the terminal, of an area of the navigation map, transferring corresponding high resolution image data for the selected area of the image from the datastore to the terminal.
9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising: storing the high resolution image data and the low resolution copy of the image data in a datastore.
10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein during the imaging, the method further comprises periodically refocusing the microscope by moving the objective lens relative to the microscopy slide.
11. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising processing the image data acquired for each image of each field of view, and storing the processed data in a datastore.
12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the processing comprises one or more of digital image compression, and processing to remove peripheral shading around each image of each field of view.
13. A method of telemicroscopy comprising the steps of: acquiring image data for a specimen using the method according to claim 8 ; allowing access to the datastore from the remote terminal; transferring the data for the low resolution copy of the image data to the terminal, and displaying a corresponding low resolution image upon the monitor; and in response to user selection, by means of the terminal, of an area of the low resolution image, transferring corresponding high resolution image data for that area from the datastore to the terminal.
14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the user selection is achieved by selecting an area of the low resolution image displayed on a monitor of the terminal.
15. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising the step of recording the areas of the low resolution image that are selected, for review of performance of a person performing the method.
16. A telemicroscopy apparatus comprising: a microscope provided with a high power objective lens; a digital imaging apparatus and a motorized stage for obtaining a single scan of the complete specimen at high magnification and high resolution to provide high resolution digital image data of every portion of the specimen and obtaining a continuous sequence of successive images by advancing the field of view of the high power objective lens of the microscope stepwise across the complete specimen and acquiring successive images of each field of view for the complete specimen; on a microscopy slide placed upon the stage; image processing means to process the high resolution digital image data to obtain a low resolution copy of the image data; storage means to store the high resolution image data and the low resolution copy of the image data thereby obtained; and means for transferring the low resolution copy of the image data from the datastore to the remote terminal for displaying a corresponding low resolution image, as a navigation map, upon a monitor of the terminal; and in response to a selection, by a user of the terminal, of an area of the navigation map, means for transferring corresponding high resolution image data for the selected area of the image from the datastore to the terminal.
17. The apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein the digital imaging apparatus is a digital camera.
18. The apparatus according to claim 16 , comprising means for moving the high power objective lens of the microscope in order to provide automatic focusing.
19. The apparatus according to claim 16 , comprising means for recording what image data is requested for review of the performance of a user.
20. The apparatus according to claim 19 , wherein the recording means is a data storage disk, such as a floppy disk.
21. A method for acquiring image data of a specimen for use in telemicroscopy, the method comprising the steps of: imaging the specimen using a high power digital microscope for obtaining a continuous sequence of successive images by advancing the field of view of the high power digital microscope stepswise across the complete specimen and acquiring successive images of each field of view for the complete specimen to obtain high resolution digital image data of the whole specimen in a single scan; and digitally processing the high resolution digital image data to obtain a relatively low resolution copy of the image data; transferring the low resolution copy of the image data from the datastore to a remote terminal for displaying a corresponding low resolution image, as a navigation map, upon a monitor of the terminal; and in response to a selection, by a user of the terminal, of an area of the navigation map, transferring corresponding high resolution image data for the selected area of the image from the datastore to the terminal.
22. A telemicroscopy apparatus for imaging a specimen comprising: a high resolution digital microscope being controllable for obtaining a single scan of the complete specimen at high magnification and high resolution to provide a high resolution digital image data of every portion of the specimen and a continuous sequence of successive images by advancing the field of view of the high power objective lens of the microscope stepwise across the complete specimen and acquiring successive images of each field of view for the complete specimen; to obtain high power digital image data of the entire specimen; image processing means to process the high resolution digital image data to obtain a low resolution copy of the image data; storage means to store the high resolution image data and the low resolution copy of the image data thereby obtained; and means for transferring the low resolution copy of the image data from the datastore to the remote terminal for displaying a corresponding low resolution image, as a navigation map, upon a monitor of the terminal; and in response to a selection, by a user of the terminal, of an area of the navigation map, means for transferring corresponding high resolution image data for the selected area of the image from the datastore to the terminal.
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April 20, 2000
January 25, 2005
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